Introduction:

Taking into account the prevalence of polypharmacy in the elderly, this study aimed to analyze the medication profile and the prevalence of factors associated with polypharmacy in the elderly assisted by a Family Health Unit in Vitória, ES, Brazil.

Materials and methods:

This is a cross-sectional observational study with 236 elderly people and data obtained through home interviews that collected sociodemographic, behavioral and health characteristics. Polypharmacy was considered from the continuous use of 5 or more drugs and the classification of drugs was made according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System made by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology. Pearson's chi-square test was performed.

Results:

The drugs most used by the elderly correspond to drugs with action on the cardiovascular system (48.7 %) and digestive and metabolic systems (21.5 %). The prevalence of polypharmacy was 37.7 % and the associated factors were age 75 years or older (56.9 %), not leaving home alone (55.3 %), presence of multimorbidity (51.3 %), absence of alcoholic habits (41.5 %) and negative self-assessment of health (45.9 %).

Conclusions:

The high prevalence of polypharmacy may be related to the culture of self-medication and inappropriate prescriptions by health professionals. The medication profile of the elderly concerns the main chronic non-communicable diseases prevalent in the country, such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus. In view of this, protective and preventive measures are of utmost importance for the health of the elderly, in order to decrease the number of medications in use and thus restore the functionality of patients.